[May 20, 1918]

In the nearest days, discuss the question of the mutual relations between delegate committees and guberniya food committees, work out a detailed instruction for delegates of consuming guberniyas and a plan for the reorganization of guberniya food committees with the involvement of delegates from consuming guberniyas in them. Request the Commissar of Food Supply to work out this question and submit a detailed project to the Council of People's Commissars in the shortest possible time.

In May 1918 the food situation was becoming more catastrophic with each day. The Council of People's Commissars and the People's Commissariat of Food Supply were receiving alarming telegrams daily from factories and plants about famine among the workers. Meanwhile, the well-to-do peasantry opposed in every way the voluntary surrender of grain to the state. The question of grain became foremost among political questions. This circumstance prompted Lenin to seek new paths for the struggle against hunger and more stringent measures for the implementation of food dictatorship.

The "Theses on the 'Current' Moment," which were adopted, in all probability, by the Party Central Committee on May 27, constitute a document of major political significance. A series of political and practical measures concerning food supply during this period proceeded from those principled positions which were set forth in the "Theses on the 'Current' Moment." On May 28, 1918 at a session of the Council of People's Commissars the fundamental positions were adopted on the food question, formulated in accordance with the theses (see p. 95), on the basis of which the People's Commissariat of Food Supply was instructed to draw up an appeal to the population.